The 20 Most Generous Celebs During COVID

Posted by Doug Murray on May 8, 2020

When social distancing started and countries began going into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrities received a lot of backlash. For most regular folk stuck in tiny apartments and wondering how to feed their families amid job losses, it left a bitter taste to see some famous person sitting in their huge mansion — telling us that we’re all in this together. However, many celebrities have also been using their star power for good. They have released charity songs, held benefit concerts and donated memorabilia for fundraisers. Some have also dug deep into their own pockets or have thought about the most meaningful ways in which they could help out. Here are some of the most generous celebs during COVID.

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Rihanna

Forget about RiRi’s style evolution: it’s her generosity that will always be in fashion. Through her Clara Lionel Foundation, Rihanna has donated $5 million to a number of organizations to help fight the virus. The money will be used for projects such as food banks in the United States, accelerated testing in countries like Haiti and Malawi, providing support for Indigenous communities, and training and protective gear for frontline health workers.

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Shawn Mendes

When singer Shawn Mendes announced on Instagram that he had donated to the SickKids Foundation in Toronto for COVID-19 relief, he said that for the month to come, all donations to the Shawn Mendes Foundation would go to the Toronto charity and to the World Health Organization’s COVID relief efforts around the world. What he didn’t mention that the amount he had donated was a generous $175,000.

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Oprah Winfrey

Oprah has long been known for her generosity. She donated $10 million to various organizations, including $1 million to America’s Food Fund, a charity that helps feed people who lost their jobs, children who had relied on school meals, the elderly and low-income families. America’s Food Fund was created by Laurene Powell Jobs — one of the richest women in the world – and Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Octavia Spencer

To give some respite to overworked nurses, actress Octavia Spencer teamed up with Miku to donate monitors to medical facilities in New York and in her home state of Alabama. These monitors allow nurses to see changes in patients’ breathing patterns — and early symptom of the virus — without having to come into close contact with them and risking infection.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively just keep on giving. They started off by donating $1 million to be split between Food Banks Canada and Feeding America. Later they donated an undisclosed amount to Ottawa Food Bank. Then Ryan, who is one of the wealthiest Canadian actors, teamed up with hockey legend Hayley Wickenheiser to donate PPE to healthcare workers in the Greater Toronto Area.

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Madonna

When social distancing started, Madonna was one of the celebrities who received the most backlash after some very bizarre posts on social media. She has since redeemed herself: she not only donated $1 million to the Gates Philanthropy Partners’ COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator to help find a cure, but she followed this up by teaming up with Reform Alliance to donate 100,000 masks to prison populations.

Sean Penn

Back when he was one half of one of the most famous celebrity couples, Sean Penn was seen as not much more than a rather talented Hollywood bad boy and Mr. Madonna. Now he’s an Oscar-winning Hollywood badass who has been doing more than just throwing money at the problem. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake he created the nonprofit CORE and now, ten years later, he’s mobilized the organization to provide free testing sites in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit and New Orleans. He’s even been working on-site alongside his team, risking infection on the frontlines.

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Cardi B

Cardi B brought us the hit "Coronavirus" but she’s done more than ranting. Outspoken and no stranger to controversy, she is also genuinely kind-hearted. She teamed up with fashion company Fashion Nova to give away $1,000 every hour until they’ve given away $1 million to people directly affected by the crisis.

Lionel Messi

Sports stars have risen to the occasion too, with several making big donations. One of them is Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, one of the richest people under 35. He donated more that $1.5 million to a public hospital in Barcelona that treats COVI-19 patients and researches the virus in one of the hardest hit countries.

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John Tavares and the Toronto Maple Leafs

When hockey season got cancelled, the Toronto Maple Leafs donated to the Team Toronto fund to take care of stadium and arena staff. Captain John Tavares felt it wasn’t enough. He, along with a group of teammates, donated an undisclosed amount to provide free meals and Uber Eats gift cards to 10,000 health workers at Trillium Health Partners’ three Mississauga campuses, as well as emergency room training at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto for the city’s healthcare workers.

George and Amal Clooney

George and Amal Clooney are well-known as being among the most generous millionaires, often donating to human rights causes. They have already donated more than $1 million to causes related to COVID-19 too. These donations have gone to the Motion Picture and Television Fund, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation COVID-19 Relief Fund, Britain’s NHS, the Lebanese Food Bank, the Lombardo, Italy Region and the Los Angeles Mayors Fund.

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Ryan Seacrest

When reality TV host Ryan Seacrest saw reports of first responders in New York sleeping in their cars to avoid putting their families at risk, he knew how he would help. Of the $1 million he donated to help with relief efforts in Los Angeles and New York, $750,000 went towards providing temporary housing for FDNY first responders and EMTs.

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Jack Dorsey

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is one of the billionaires who are single and his generosity during COVID has now made him even more worthy of being everyone’s celebrity crush. He’s donating a whopping $1 billion — or nearly a third of his wealth — to various coronavirus relief efforts. For example, he’s teamed up with Rihanna to help combat domestic violence while people are cooped up at home, and with Beyoncé to provide relief to healthcare workers on the frontline.

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Birdman

Rapper and music producer Birdman was born and raised in the New Orleans housing projects, so he knows the struggle of making rent every month. For the month of May, he offered to pay the rent of New Orleans residents in several wards if they needed it.

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Dolly Parton

Everyone’s favourite country star has been lifting our spirits with poems, parodies of her songs and a YouTube series of bedtime stories. One of the world’s richest singers, Dolly Parton is also trying to help make us feel better in a more literal way: she’s donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for research to find a cure for the novel coronavirus.

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Donatella and Allegra Versace

Fashion designers have helped out right from the start of the pandemic, producing face masks and hospital gowns and donating money where it’s needed. Donatella and Allegra Versace, for instance, have donated $500,000 to support the intensive care unit of Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital and to a project providing ventilators and other equipment to hospitals in Italy.

Kylie Jenner

Kylie Jenner is definitely not just a reality TV star. She’s one of the women who became CEOs under 30, having started her successful cosmetics company as a teen. She’s also stepped up in the fight against COVID: a $1 million donation to buy PPE was followed by a donation of 6,000 pounds of hand sanitizer to Los Angeles hospitals facing a shortage. In partnership with mom Kris and Coty Inc, Kylie has also started production of more hand sanitizer to be donated to hospitals elsewhere.

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Lil Nas X

In March, as people started losing their jobs, "Old Town Road" rapper Lil Nas X tweeted his fans to send him their Cash App details so he could send them money to buy food and stay inside.

Billy Ray Cyrus

Indigenous communities worldwide are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 and in the United States, Native Americans have been impacted disproportionately by the novel coronavirus. During the Native Americans & Coronavirus Virtual Town Hall, country star, Miley’s dad and the other half of "Old Town Road", Billy Ray Cyrus announced a donation of 20,000 masks to Native American communities to help curb the spread of the virus.

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Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson haven’t been doing things the usual Hollywood way. While other celebrities were complaining about how bored they were, stuck in their mansions, this power couple were literal quarantine partners in Australia, where they were both fighting off the virus. Both recovered and now, while others are donating money, they have been donating blood and plasma in the search for a vaccine.